Report: Alleged hoaxster confessed to friend that he duped Manti Te’o

posted at 8:31 pm on January 18, 2013 by Allahpundit

If you’re following the story, the six-minute ESPN clip below is obligatory. The two people interviewed on camera, Vaosa and Tuioti-Mariner, should be familiar: They were the ones who were tweeting about Lennay Kekua being a fake two days before Te’o himself allegedly found out. How’d they know when he didn’t? Because, if they’re to be believed, alleged hoaxster Ronaiah Tuiasosopo ran this same scam on their cousin years ago. He may or may not have also tried to scam the show “The Voice” when he auditioned. As you’ll see, a friend of Tuiasosopo’s tells ESPN that he came to her crying in early December claiming that he’d duped Te’o; that timeline fits with the claim from Notre Dame that the hoaxster(s) finally ‘fessed up to Te’o on December 6. And one more thing fits: According to the friend, it wasn’t just Tuiasosopo but two of his cousins, one a man and one a woman, who were in on it. That explains how Te’o could have had long phone calls with Kekua and spoken repeatedly to her brother. If he’s telling the truth, he was probably unknowingly talking to the cousins.

Manti Te’o has told family and friends that the woman who was the voice of his fictitious girlfriend “Lennay Kekua” called him in December and said she had to fake her own death months earlier to elude drug dealers, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned.

The woman, who has yet to be identified, tried to re-engage a relationship with Te‘o months after she supposedly had died of leukemia in early September, the Notre Dame All-American linebacker has told the people close to him. The account was shared with the Star-Advertiser by a source close to the Te‘o family.

According to the account, Te’o asked the woman to transmit a photo to him with a date stamp, which she did, but this did not allay his suspicions and he later told his family and Notre Dame officials about being scammed.

So maybe that’s why Te’o didn’t tell anyone about the hoax until December 26. He was still in communication with “her” during that time and trying to figure out what was happening. (Or maybe he really did want to avoid distracting the team before the BCS Championship game. But in that case, why’d he tell Notre Dame officials about the hoax two weeks before the game was played? Why not after?)

So there you go. Mystery solved, all nice and tidy. Except for … just a few things.

1. We still don’t know why Te’o’s father thought his son and Kekua had met face to face at a game at Stanford in 2009 or why he thought she had visited Te’o in Hawaii.

2. Te’o and Tuiasosopo were friendly enough to have hung out together on November 23, along with Tuiasosopo’s cousin. That doesn’t prove anything either way. Maybe Tuiasosopo’s disturbed enough that he was happy to run this scam even on a guy who knew and liked him. Or maybe they were in cahoots. But they were, evidently, in contact shortly before the whole thing unraveled.

3. Te’o supposedly began dating someone else less than two months after Kekua died. That doesn’t prove anything either; people grieve differently, even over the death of the alleged “love of my life.” But remember that some Notre Dame teammates have been whispering to reporters that while they believed Kekua existed, they also believed that Te’o vastly exaggerated the extent of his relationship with her for sympathy. There remains a bizarre possibility here that he did have contact with someone whom he honestly thought was Lennay Kekua yet hyped the depth of their “romance” in order to burnish his personal narrative. One hoax on top of another, in other words, yet both independent of each other.

4. In the clip, ESPN says Tuiasosopo’s unnamed friend claims that he and both of his cousins impersonated female voices while on the phone with Te’o. What? One of the cousins is male, as is Tuiasosopo. How’d they fool him?

5. Vaosa, one of the people featured in the clip, apparently told ESPN that he thinks Te’o is innocent. Quote:

The cousins [Vaosa and Tuioti-Mariner] said they were convinced Te’o was being victimized, but they were uncertain of what to do. They said they began tweeting their suspicions.

Another one of Smith’s sources, a man named J.R. Vaosa, spoke to us for our original story, saying Tuiasosopo had confessed to his best friend. He tried to put us in touch with her, to no avail. Vaosa was one of our two unnamed sources who believed that Tuiasosopo had been in league with Te’o in the deception…

Vaoso, whose cousin had been duped by Lennay/Tuiasosopo in for a month in 2008, said he was “80 percent” certain that Te’o had known of the hoax at some point before Lennay’s “death.”

Why would Vaosa’s story have changed over the past week? Is there some new evidence he’s heard of to have changed his mind about Te’o’s guilt?

Blowback

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Comments

Scout is a recruiting site, which you conveniently selected over the major sports networks, and it’s the only one to list Te’o. You’re not fooling me, man. Maybe some of the other people here don’t know any better but I do.

vitocorleone99 on January 19, 2013 at 1:37 AM

Ummm, Scout.com is owned by Fox Sports which, last I checked is a major sports network. In fact, Fox Sports is carrying one of the NFL conference championship games Sunday. Maybe you should watch. You might learn something about football.

Ummm, Scout.com is owned by Fox Sports which, last I checked is a major sports network. In fact, Fox Sports is carrying one of the NFL conference championship games Sunday. Maybe you should watch. You might learn something about football.

You’ve been exposed as being so invested in your narrative that you’ll disregard the truth, so it’s not surprising to me that now you’re reduced to implying that I don’t know anything about football. Deadspin is exactly your speed.

That’s from ESPN. I hope that meets your high standards of sports reporting?

LOL!

Some choice quotes: “During another interview at the Heisman ceremony that ran on WSBT.com, the website for a South Bend TV station, Te’o said: “I mean, I don’t like cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer. So I’ve really tried to go to children’s hospitals and see, you know, children.”

In a column that first ran in The Los Angeles Times, on Dec. 10, Te’o recounted why he played a few days after he found out Kekua died in September, and the day she was supposedly buried.

“She made me promise, when it happened, that I would stay and play,” he said Dec. 9 while attending a ceremony in Newport Beach, Calif., for the Lott Impact Awards.”

Here’s the Bleacher Reports watch from early October 2012 and Teo is listed at No. 6.

Just stop with your nonsense. Yes, Teo was a Heisman Trophy candidate at the start of the season and both Teo and Notre Dame tried to exploit the death of Teo’s alleged girlfriend (whom Teo never met) to generate sympathy and votes for the Heisman and other college football awards. That’s despicable and both Teo and Notre Dame should be ashamed of themselves.

Again, this is based on the notion that he responded to “Lennay’s” voice by assuming that she didn’t exist. You are free to make that assumption. Several writers have made that assumption. It’s not a logical assumption. The logical response is to be confused, which I’m sure he was.

If someone called me tonight and said she was my dead grandmother, I would assume that someone was messing with me, but I wouldn’t assume that my grandmother didn’t exist. There were several more calls after the one on the 6th, but they don’t fit your narrative so you’re not interested in them.

The cute names are pretty much enough to indicate that the grown up conversation is over. I’m just thankful that I’ve never been this invested in hating anybody. You’re carrying quite a burden.

You actually don’t know that Bleacher Report is like the sports equivalent of Twilight Fan Fiction? I thought you were just messing with me. Here’s a Bleacherreport that has Te’o at #32. Here’s a Bleacherreport that doesn’t list him at all.

I listed the major sports networks. You checked them and you know damned well I was right. You can’t come to grips with it.

You have any comments about the ESPN article showing how many times Teo and Notre Dame lied about his non-existent dead girlfriend?

I already addressed the assumptions that you and the ESPN author have made. I have no idea if or when the Te’o camp intends to release its evidence, but they claim emphatically that the call on the 6th did not put an end to the situation. There were more phone calls after that. Given that they already know people like you are out there, I’m inclined to think they wouldn’t say that tonight if they didn’t have their ducks in a row.

You’ll find some other way to explain the evidence if it’s released. I’ll question that part of the story if it’s not released. That’s the difference between us in a nutshell.

If someone called me tonight and said she was my dead grandmother, I would assume that someone was messing with me, but I wouldn’t assume that my grandmother didn’t exist. There were several more calls after the one on the 6th, but they don’t fit your narrative so you’re not interested in them.

The cute names are pretty much enough to indicate that the grown up conversation is over. I’m just thankful that I’ve never been this invested in hating anybody. You’re carrying quite a burden.

vitocorleone99 on January 19, 2013 at 2:07 AM

But you actually met your Grandmother, right? Chances are you actually spoke to her in person and hugged her. When your Grandmother died, you grieved with your family and attended her funeral and visited her grave. Right?

Teo did none of that.

And I don’t hate the Irish. I was pulling for them in the BCS game. And in the Oklahoma game. And in the Michigan game. Geeze, just admit you are a Notre Dame grad and get it over with.

I listed the major sports networks. You checked them and you know damned well I was right. You can’t come to grips with it.
vitocorleone99 on January 19, 2013 at 2:22 AM

You can list all the recruiting sites you want to…but common sense tells me that if I am an NFL GM, if a guy is a head case, I am gonna think twice…ask yourself, would I invest 20 million in him? I don’t think so….

But you actually met your Grandmother, right? Chances are you actually spoke to her in person and hugged her. When your Grandmother died, you grieved with your family and attended her funeral and visited her grave. Right?

Teo did none of that.

And I don’t hate the Irish. I was pulling for them in the BCS game. And in the Oklahoma game. And in the Michigan game. Geeze, just admit you are a Notre Dame grad and get it over with.

Captain Kirock on January 19, 2013 at 2:27 AM

Yes, and that’s the difference between me and a sucker. I don’t even believe you exist. He did believe that she existed. He’s a sucker. That’s a far cry from carrying on some grand conspiracy and killing off an imaginary character in order to advance a nonexistent Heisman campaign.

I went to Michigan, but I obviously don’t have the venom for Notre Dame that plenty of my neighbors have.

Yes, and that’s the difference between me and a sucker. I don’t even believe you exist. He did believe that she existed. He’s a sucker. That’s a far cry from carrying on some grand conspiracy and killing off an imaginary character in order to advance a nonexistent Heisman campaign.
vitocorleone99 on January 19, 2013 at 2:31 AM

I have no idea if or when the Te’o camp intends to release its evidence, but they claim emphatically that the call on the 6th did not put an end to the situation.

Then why did Teo and Notre Dame keep lying about his non-existent girlfriend duirng the BCS game in January?

Given that they already know people like you are out there, I’m inclined to think they wouldn’t say that tonight if they didn’t have their ducks in a row.

In other words, Teo, his agent, and his attorneys are trying to find just the right story to convince everyone who is NOT a Notre Dame honk that Teo and Notre Dame did not lie. (The honest truth is not enough, apparently.)

Then why did Teo and Notre Dame keep lying about his non-existent girlfriend duirng the BCS game in January?

They didn’t. They were silent about it.

In other words, Teo, his agent, and his attorneys are trying to find just the right story to convince everyone who is NOT a Notre Dame honk that Teo and Notre Dame did not lie. (The honest truth is not enough, apparently.)

Good luck with that.

Captain Kirock on January 19, 2013 at 2:34 AM

Proved my point nicely. They claim to have evidence that what he says is true, but you consider that “trying to find the right story.” Deadspin had conjecture from a guy (unrelated to the case) who said he was 80% sure Te’o knew about it. You consider that as evidence.

You could be given video footage of Te’o, from sun up to sun down over the last three years, and you would convince yourself that it was staged.

As I said earlier, I’m glad I don’t carry that kind of hateful burden.

Vito,
I am the biggest conservative evangelical christian in the world but I know when to cut my losses. Manti is like you and me, he is a debased creature in need of a savior…

TheRook on January 19, 2013 at 2:39 AM

“Debased” is a pointless cheap shot. He’s a kid who got tricked. As far as needing a savior, from what I’ve seen he’d be the first to tell you that. Given the amount of good that he’s done for people, his word, with evidence to back it up, will mean more to me than internet speculation without evidence to back it up.

Nobody, as nearly as I can tell, has any losses to cut here. Which is why the venom is so odd to me.

Nobody, as nearly as I can tell, has any losses to cut here. Which is why the venom is so odd to me.

vitocorleone99 on January 19, 2013 at 2:54 AM

I assure you I have no venom. Debased is not a cheap shot because I assure you that I am debased as well. As a Christian, I believe that man is debased by sin, that includes me. I am tainted by sin and therefore in need of a savior. So you see, if Manti has lied or misrepresented, I know that I am fully guilty of these sins as well…

America is falling down around our ears. That this story is “news” is one of the starkest examples of modern American febrility and vapidity I have ever seen.

cane_loader on January 19, 2013 at 4:35 AM

Very true. But guess what? No one cares.

Did you miss it? Obama was reelected. No one cares about reasoned political discourse anymore. How many times can we talk about how screwed this country is and how much Barrack Obama, Harry Reid, and John Boehner suck?

Teo’s story is a scandal, a mystery, and a car wreck all wrapped into one. If you don’t see the entertainment value in it then you are a hopeless Stoic.

America is falling down around our ears. That this story is “news” is one of the starkest examples of modern American febrility and vapidity I have ever seen.
cane_loader on January 19, 2013 at 4:35 AM

I think a big part of it is people’s obsession with sports and those who play sports. I will never understand how people can watch cable sports news channels all day long and listen to sport radio shows nonstop. Then they argue with each other about this game or that player. And these are grown men doing this. I can see cheering on a favorite team and having debates now and then, but some people take this way overboard. More people know about who their favorite ball player is dating than they know about Obama’s policies, for example.

I get why this story is interesting, but I didn’t know who Teo was before this. I enjoy commenting on it because I enjoy arguing on here, especially when the other people don’t agree with me. I don’t find it as fun posting when everyone else is in agreement with me. This guy Teo is good at throwing a ball or catching or tackling or whatever he does at his position, and that’s why he is famous and why this is news. Seems silly to me.

I feel more inclined to want to defend him against attacks, though, because he seems like a good person. Getting so invested in someone you’ve never met is never a good idea, but he hardly deserves the harsh media scrutiny for it.

I’m trying not to follow this story and am doing a pretty good job of it, so someone here may have addressed this already and I missed it. But, I don’t understand the point of “scamming” this T’eo fellow. Usually, there would be some sort of payoff, wouldn’t there? I don’t see what Tuiasosopo would have to gain from such a hoax. I can, however, see potential gain for T’eo if he did this himself–it’s easier to believe that he is behind this than that he is the victim of someone who wanted to invest a great deal of time and energy for no reason.

His story is patently nonsense. It never occurred to him to go visit his sick girlfriend? He can’t carve out a weekend during the school year? As folks pointed out on twitter, he wasn’t even in school for part of the time his “girlfriend” was allegedly in the hospital because it was summer between semesters. Nothing about his story adds up, and anyone who continues to believe it is as big a fool as he is asking us to believe he is.

I’m trying not to follow this story and am doing a pretty good job of it, so someone here may have addressed this already and I missed it.

Don’t fight it. Just start following the story like the rest of us.

But, I don’t understand the point of “scamming” this T’eo fellow. Usually, there would be some sort of payoff, wouldn’t there? I don’t see what Tuiasosopo would have to gain from such a hoax. I can, however, see potential gain for T’eo if he did this himself–it’s easier to believe that he is behind this than that he is the victim of someone who wanted to invest a great deal of time and energy for no reason.
DrMagnolias on January 19, 2013 at 8:30 AM

You’ll have to ask Tuiasosopo what his motive was. Apparently he had done this same thing to a few others already using the same fake persona.

The theory is that his motives are financially driven and that he could be wanting to raise money for fake cancer charities. Or maybe he just loved the thrill of pulling hoaxes. Either way, he doesn’t exactly seem like a model citizen.

He couldn’t find a girl in South Bend like he couldn’t find an Alabama running back in the BCS. He came in 2nd for the Heisman after being pushed by ND for the award. All the schools push their best athletes for awards and get sports writers to help. Networks help with their puff pieces they use to fill up air time(see the Olympics). Quit watching that sappy crap a long time ago as it has nothing to do with how the game is played.

After all, it’s better to be a liar than to be the stupidest mf who ever lived.
Raquel Pinkbullet on January 19, 2013 at 9:27 AM

Give it up, Pinky. Turns out you and the other Teo-bashers were Wrong with a capital W.. Manti really did get duped, and the more we learn about Tuiasosopo and his alleged history of lies and successful past hoaxes, the more we see who is really to blame.

I feel terrible for Manti, who seems like a really good guy, and am disgusted to see the vicious media treatment he has had to endure the last few days. It reminds me of the unfair treatment that Sarah Palin faced.

This dreck is leading news broadcasts that, in the brief time allotted to actual news, instead should be used to report on useless things like national bankruptcy, gun grabbing, Fast and Furious, refusal to pass a budget, stonewalling on Benghazi, and the proceeding destruction of the health-care system as we knew it.

Te`o has told so many lies he doesn`t know which end is up. I like the one when he said he met the girl after the Stanford game in 2009. Sorry, I am in love with a girl for 3 years I never met. Te`o is some kind of a nut job and they should run his ass out of town

Give it up, Pinky. Turns out you and the other Teo-bashers were Wrong with a capital W.. Manti really did get duped, and the more we learn about Tuiasosopo and his alleged history of lies and successful past hoaxes, the more we see who is really to blame.

I feel terrible for Manti, who seems like a really good guy, and am disgusted to see the vicious media treatment he has had to endure the last few days. It reminds me of the unfair treatment that Sarah Palin faced.

bluegill on January 19, 2013 at 9:33 AM

Give it up gilly, NO one with more than 1/2 a brain believes Teo’s bs.

If he was that gullible, NFL teams would see Teo as a bargain. They can pay him in pictures of money.

After scanning the first thread’s comments on this subject I was grateful to see some decency in this one.

Thanks to bluegill for:

“Bottom line: Evidence points to Manti Teo’s innocence, though he is guilty of being gullible and having a big heart.”

And thanks to vitocorleone99:

“I went to Michigan, but I obviously don’t have the venom for Notre Dame that plenty of my neighbors have.”

I will in the future be less critical of Michigan and “The Big House” in spite of the unpleasant experience I had at the ND game I attended in Ann Arbor. I hope my ND alum always represents her school as well as you do yours.